Following a fairly brief courtship, he proposed marriage. Rita agreed with joy, glad to have met such an attractive, reliable man. Once their marriage had been decided upon, he suggested they fly together in order to bring her parents their news. When Rita acquiesced, he said, as his bride-to-be, he could not allow her to travel with the casual suitcases she had owned as a tourist. He would buy her elegant cases suitable for a businessman’s wife.
Shortly before their flight, he claimed an emergency had arisen regarding his work which would prevent his joining her. Aware she felt disconcerted at having to travel to her parents’ home without him, he persuaded her to go anyway; he would be at her side at the first moment he could be. Meanwhile, a colleague she had come to trust would travel with her. Then, suddenly, this colleague became unavailable too. By then, despite feeling deflated, Rita took the flight.
Having reached the Bangkok Airport where a change of planes was meant to take place, Rita found herself under arrest. At first she felt sure there was some mistake which could easily be resolved. How could the substantial amount of heroin she was accused of carrying have been found in her baggage? The only two people, aside from herself, who had access to her suitcases, had been her fiancee and his colleague.
When the police failed to reach her fiancee, she pleaded with them to drive her to the hotel where his colleague was staying. Once there, this colleague, looking at Rita in seeming bewilderment, asked her, “Who are you?”
In fact, who was she? Given every reason to view herself as the soon-to-be wife of a businessman, Rita Nightingale found herself sentenced to twenty years in a Bangkok prison. Then, when her case became publicized, she was visited in prison by Christian ministers. At first, their advice seemed completely nonsensical…
I recommend this book which is a fascinating account of faith and forgiveness and a riveting read.
